There are many reasons why I joined this race on Valentine's Day:
1. It's for a good cause as proceeds will be used to build a nursery
2. It's made by DLSU's ENGLICOM School Club. As a fellow alumni, it's good to help my alma mater in one form or another.
3. Race was held in BGC, my favorite race place in the Philippines due to the proximity to my house. The nearer the better!
4. Good to do a 10km race to see if I can improve on my previous 10k or not in terms of pace and finish time.
5. Burn off the calories from eating out in our Pre-Valentine's date.
My target for this race was to simply beat my previous 10k 2016 PR of time 1:02:12 (average pace of 6:11). This meant doing an average pace of 6:10 per kilometer.
I got to the starting line 5 minutes before race start and I was able to do some quick stretching on my body. As it was a small race, I started in the front and as soon as race started, I knew I was going out too fast as was running with elite runners. I had to scale down my pace or else be burned out in the middle part.
My objective was to simply run at 6:10 per kilometer and go faster in downhill portions of the race. As there was no race map prior to the race, I didn't know where the route would take us.
At halfway mark, I was surprised as it took us up Kalayaan Flyover. Truthfully, "surprise" was me downplaying what I was feelings at that time as I saw it. More of a mixture of denial, anger, some swear words to myself and thinking I won't be able to beat my previous race time. Yes the I went through the entire 5 stages of grief in a matter of minutes before ending it with acceptance!
Thankfully, I was able to do some hill repeats this week and through that, it gave me the confidence to run up the flyover at a good pace. Note to self: I should do more hill repeats!
I counted down the kilometers as I want it to end! I was out of breath but stronger than the race in La Salle Greenhills.
At the last 3km, I was able to run at sub 6 minute pace so that should help my average pace.
I finally saw the finish line and went all out before stopping my Garmin watch at the finish line. I walked a bit to lower my heart rate before I looked at my watch.
Thank God for keeping me strong in this race. Pace was a lot better than what I expected and if it was exactly 10km, then I would finish slightly or at 1 hour mark! i just don't know how I can top this in the future.
Post-race, I got a finisher medal, a
finisher shirt and a loot bag
and went home to change and pick up my family for Valentine's day breakfast at Starbucks. Thank You Lord for a great day and a great race.
To God be all the glory!
For the race itself, aside from the added 200m distance to the 10km race, I had no other complaints. There were ample marahals, lots of water stations and race started on time. There wasn't any problem in claiming loot bags as well. Congrats to DLSU ENGLICOM Club.
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